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Deontay Wilder is a Bum if He Does Anything Less Than Dominate Dominic Breazeale | ONE AND DUNN

By Sam Dunn

Deontay Wilder v Dominic Breazeale - Weigh-in
Deontay Wilder v Dominic Breazeale - Weigh-in / Mike Stobe

You asked for this, Deontay.

While the World Boxing Council will still have something to say about its heavyweight champion of the world when they hold a hearing about his recent disturbing comments about his upcoming opponent, Deontay Wilder himself has no choice but to make a pointed pronouncement of his own.

On Saturday night in Brooklyn, his only option is to grind Dominic Breazeale into a paste.

After what he said, anything less than total destruction will do real and lasting damage to Wilder's career-- and threaten his chances at what ought to be the two biggest items on his agenda: a bang-bang rematch against Tyson Fury and a dream bout with unified champ Anthony Joshua.

Let's face it, the Bronze Bomber would have been completely out of line to make even a veiled reference to actual murder. The fact that he has no scruples about getting "a body on [my] record" -- he even sounds quite excited about it -- is equal parts chilling and stupefying. But since he's already made this bed for himself, he can't back down.

Though Brezeale may have weighed in at 253 pounds to his 226, Wilder needs to manhandle this guy and knock him out. It needs to be convincingly visceral. If he leaves any doubt whatsoever about who bossed the proceedings this weekend at the Barclays Center, he'll look like an absolute fool.

The kind of fool whom Fury shouldn't even bother wheeling and dealing with, and the rampant, vicious Joshua shouldn't even be bothered to chuckle at.

As an undefeated title-holder, Deontay has plenty of cachet. He's proven that he isn't all talk; a 40-0-1 record with 39 knockouts, including eight successful defenses of his WBC belt, says as much. But he simply cannot afford to spoil all this now. And it's not like even a narrow victory on points would be a slam dunk against a bruiser like "Trouble" Breazeale, whose sole career defeat came against Joshua.

There's no more posturing to be done. The Bama-born Bomber has to bring it.

All of it.